U.S., China Close To Trade Deal According To Several Reports

Reports from Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg News say that lifting tariffs on Chinese goods by the US in exchange for China making several economic pledges are part of a trade deal that is on the horizon.

Reuters reported on Sunday evening, from one of its sources briefed on White House negotiations, that the deal would include the US lifting sanctions on at least $200 billion worth of Chinese products in exchange for China lifting retaliatory tariffs they have against the US and making pledges for economic reforms.

Reuters’ source also said that a 10-day window has been reserved by China around or near March 20th to hold a possible summit with the US which would be followed by an announcement of a trade deal between the two countries. Last month, President Trump dropped hints of a possible summit with China that could possibly occur as early as March and that the location of the summit would be held at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The Wall Street Journal’s report however states that the summit between the two countries could be held around March 27, 2019.

Throughout 2018, China and the US have engaged in retaliatory tariff actions against each other

but since the beginning of this year they have been involved in trade talks which have been taking place ever since negotiators from China visited the US in February for several days.

BloombergNews reports that among the topics in the negotiations is the touchy issue of how immediate the lifting of US tariffs on Chinese goods would happen. The US wishes to lift the tariffs over a period of time, not immediately, in order to keep China from pulling out of the trade deal says BloombergNews.

All of these reports of a possible trade deal came on the heels of an announcement made by President Trump that an increase in tariffs on Chinese imported goods which were previously scheduled to go into effect on March 1st would be delayed. The President came to this decision based on ‘substantial progress’ that has been made so far in negotiations between the two countries.

President Trump posted on Twitter last Friday that he had contacted Chinese President Xi Jinxing and asked that tariffs on US agricultural products be lifted ‘immediately.’ The Wall Street journal reports that China would agree to the lowering of tariffs on agricultural products and other US goods as part of the eventual finalized trade agreement.